Did I just catch a Citizen Kane reference in the latest episode of Severance season 2? The way Harmony Cobel returns to her hometown, Salt’s Neck, and tells her childhood chum to “Flip my toboggan,” it reminded me of Orson Welles’ Rosebud. [Spoiler Alert] And why not? Just like Kane, Cobel’s own childhood was taken away from her by Lumon’s oligarch, Jame Eagan. Cobel was once an innocent, small-town girl who found her happiness by her mother’s side, but after she was imprisoned in Lumon’s Myrtle Eagan School for Girls, she lost everything she held dear. I always find it really interesting how these cult leaders brainwash their disciples and program them to blindly execute their agenda. The devils sow the seeds of fanaticism at such an early age that even if a blind loyalist wants to escape the prison, they can’t. Even when they are ill-treated or exploited, they believe it’s in the best interest of their cult. They fail to understand whether it’s their personal ambition driving them forward or if it is their leader’s vested interest. That’s exactly what is happening with Harmony Cobel. Even when she was cursing Jame for stealing her research, she used words that could be defined as “sweet vitriol.” She knows that severance has always been her project, yet she never revealed the truth because she believed her contribution would one day serve Kier’s true purpose. Cobel knows that Lumon destroyed her town. Maybe that Ether Mill has something to do with her mother Charlotte’s death, and that of hundreds of others in Salt’s Neck too. But Cobel, no matter how much she tries, can’t bring herself to despise Kier or his descendants, because that’s just how she’s been programmed. It’s how we are taught to never speak ill of God or cause any harm to their anointed. Well, I guess in the end, it’s going to take an atheist to bring Lumon down.
The ending of Severance episode 8 dropped a shocking revelation suggesting that it was Harmony Cobel who invented the severance procedure, and Jame Eagan, the patriarch of Lumon Industries, stole her idea and developed it as his own. Cobel, like a true disciple, never questioned the intentions of her God’s true descendant, but now that she’s been thrown out like a fly, she seeks something that I wouldn’t dare call revenge. You see, for some people, it’s never about credit, money, or worldly desires. They just need a sense of belonging. Cobel will never destroy Lumon because she believes it’s her family, even though these “family members” never treat her like one. In short, Cobel is programmed in a way that she cannot desire anything beyond being a part of Lumon, well, part of the severed floor, to be particular. She just wants to see her idea reach its full potential, and I guess that’s one of the reasons why she informed Milchick so he could stop the little Overtime Contingency coup that the severed workers had pulled off at the end of season 1. And I believe Cobel took the blueprints of her research with her because she wanted to make the board or Jame realize whose idea it was to begin with, so they could be convinced to give her her position back so that she could finish what she had started. And yes, she would use Mark’s reintegration secret to bargain with Lumon or the board.
I feel like Devon has just committed a huge mistake by telling Cobel about Mark’s reintegration and Reghabi, because when the right time comes, Cobel is going to use both these pieces of information to find her way back onto the MDR floor, especially when Milchick isn’t doing a great job handling the workers. Cobel even told Helena Eagan that Milchick should be let go because he doesn’t even know half of what it is all about. I think the ending of season 1 is going to repeat itself in season 2, where Cobel will throw Mark and Reghabi under the bus to buy herself a ticket into Lumon so she can finish the work she had started. Before she was removed from her position, she was handling the “Cold Harbor” file, which has already been established as a big deal in the severance project. So far, we only know that “Cold Harbor” has something to do with Gemma and Mark, and Cobel would go to any lengths to realize her dream. I guess this was one of the reasons why Reghabi warned Devon not to call Cobel, because she always knew that Cobel was more committed to the cause than anyone else. Maybe Reghabi was aware of the fact that Severance was Cobel’s brainchild to begin with, and this was one of the reasons why she took so much interest in Mark, because he was the one that was going to help her achieve a milestone in her research. And this is why Cobel won’t let go of Mark, ever.
I also found it quite interesting that Cobel, who sees herself as a daughter of Lumon, is more loyal to the cause than Jame’s real daughter, Helena Eagan. Helena doesn’t quite understand the severance process. She’s only carrying out her father’s orders. She feels the weight of these responsibilities because she never had the choice to speak up against it, while Cobel wants to finish the task with all her sincerity. Through her achievement, she wants to make an ultimate contribution to Kier Eagan, which she has been made to believe is her life’s only purpose. She even missed her mother’s death to serve Kier’s purpose, and no matter what happens, Cobel won’t let her sacrifices go in vain. Speaking of Helena, I believe she might switch sides and become a whistleblower to help the severed employees expose her father and force them to leave Kier Town just like they abandoned Salt’s Neck.
